Mad Dog Mattis Makes Trip to DMZ, Made Sure NK Army Saw His Visit

Secretary of Defense James Mattis recently made his first visit to South Korea as Secretary of Defense, and during his trip he visited an outpost along the DMZ that allowed him to peer into North Korea.

While Mattis was at the outpost, South Korean Defense Minister Song Young-moo took the opportunity to remind Mattis of a key problem about North Korean artillery, Yahoo News reported.

“Defending against this many [long-range artillery] is infeasible in my opinion,” Song explained to Mattis.

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Song also noted that they would need a way to “offensively neutralise” the artillery should any sort of military conflict break out between the two nations.

“Understood,” Mattis responded.

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North Korean artillery is one of the chief reasons that no military conflict has broken out yet. There is so much artillery pointed at Seoul, the capital of South Korea, that there is simply no known way to stop all of it from firing.

The Economist noted that Mattis chose to send a very powerful signal to North Korea by having Song turn and shake his hand while facing North Korea, all while a North Korean soldier filmed the entire incident.

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Talk about sending a message.

While North Korea’s nuclear arsenal gets a lot of attention, the artillery that it has pointed at Seoul would be enough to reduce most of the city to rubble within in hours, and kill tens of thousands of people.

CNN reported that while at the DMZ, Mattis stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to the crisis, but also said that the military wouldn’t hesitate to act if it needed to.

“Make no mistake. Any attack on the United States or our allies will be defeated,” Mattis explained. “Any use of nuclear weapons by the North will be met with a massive military response, effective and overwhelming.”

CNBC noted that Mattis also accused the North Korean regime of engaging in “outlaw” behavior and re-emphasized that the United States would never tolerate a nuclear North Korea.

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“I cannot imagine a condition under which the United States would accept North Korea as a nuclear power,” Mattis stated bluntly.